The Catalan bishops left yesterday after the rejection of the amnesty for the leaders of the process expressed on Thursday by the general secretary and spokesman of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), Francisco César García Magán. The prelates distanced themselves from their position, emphasized that it was a personal legal assessment of the also auxiliary bishop of Toledo and referred to political neutrality.
In a statement from the Tarraconense Episcopal Conference, which brings together the ten dioceses of Catalonia, the bishops advocate "maintaining an edifying and respectful neutrality". "Neutrality that we can only break when the right to the dignity of the human being is injured, the center of all the social doctrine of the Church", continues the text, in which it is also noted that "the Church is always guided to promote equality, cordiality, dialogue and work to make a new and good society". "Inciting partisanship or praising a certain position is not good or, unfortunately, new", lament the bishops.
García Magán, in response to journalists at a press conference, said on Thursday that the amnesty is not justified because, in his opinion, "we are not in an exceptional situation". His assessment proved wrong in some sectors of the Catalan Church who consider that he overstepped the limits of his functions and that he should not have spoken on this matter. The EEC itself pointed out on Thursday that the opinion expressed by the auxiliary bishop of Toledo was a simple response to the press and did not have the same rank as a position of the permanent commission of the body of bishops.
Sources consulted point out - in a personal capacity - that García Magán's message is not in line with Pope Francis and what he expressed during the World Youth Day that was held in Lisbon in the summer, when he exclaimed that " in the Church there is everyone, everyone, everyone". These sources understand that there are people who may be offended by the political line expressed by the prelate of Toledo. "It was better not to answer the question", conclude the consulted sources.
The body that brings together the Catalan bishops met last week and did not plan to do so again until the beginning of next year, so no announcement was expected on this matter, but there has been a certain discomfort in part of the clergy and the bishops have wanted to contextualize García Magán's words.
Without going any further, from the association of progressive chaplains of the diocese of Girona Fòrum Joan Alsina expressed their criticism yesterday. One of its members, Fèlix Mussoll, from the Sant Cugat de Salt parish, disagreed with its content and form. "It is ethically reprehensible to attribute a personal opinion to the EEC", he pointed out. "It's one thing to be a spokesperson for the EEC and speak on behalf of the bishops and another is to give a personal opinion that may be very different from the opinion of other people", Mussoll added before the Catalan bishops made public the statement in what were detached from García Magán's words.
Unlike the prelate, the Joan Alsina Forum, created in 1999 in memory of the priest from Emporda who was murdered in 1973 in Chile after Augusto Pinochet's coup d'état, is "in favor of amnesty" and also of the independence of Catalonia
In the political sphere there were also complaints about the words of the auxiliary bishop of Toledo. "We are thousands of Catalan Catholics who feel expelled from the Catalan Church (because, unfortunately, it is absolutely subsidiary and congregational to the Spanish Church, presided over by the Archbishop of Barcelona)", said former councilor Josep Rull, who to be taken from March 2018 to June 2021 by the 1-O. "However, there are still rectors and other priestesses in Catalonia who, apart from the hierarchy, are there and will always be there. Committed to this town", he added.
For his part, the Director of Religious Affairs of the Generalitat, Carles Armengol, recalled the words of the Catalan bishops in June 2021 which later ratified the EEC: "As we have stated on numerous occasions, we are convinced of the strength that have dialogue and measures of grace in all conflict situations. We believe that the achievement of a just social order that allows the harmonious development of the whole society needs something more than the application of the law".
